Stars in the Moonlit Sky
by FallenAshes09
Summary: HIATUS! Vampires are rare, powerful, and misunderstood creatures. And now a student has been turned into a vampire on Hogwarts grounds. HPDM SLASH!
1. The Walk

**Disclaimer: None is mine.**

**This will be SLASH! Boy/boy loving each other!**

**So homophobes can click the big BACK button return to their naive and prejudice ways.**

**Otherwise, read on. **

****

**Stars in the Moonlit Sky**
    
    _A voice said, Look me in the stars_
    
    _And tell me truly, men of earth,_
    
    _If all the soul-and-body scars_
    
    _Were not too much to pay for birth._

            Harry Potter couldn't sleep that night. 

            It was three weeks into his seventh year and Harry was getting tired of all the hero worship he received from the school. During the summer after his sixth year Voldemort had successfully managed to capture the then sixteen year old Gryffindor and take him to his hideout somewhere in Scotland. He had endured three weeks of torture, torment, and pure, unadulterated pain. But then the night that Voldemort planned to put him out of his misery and kill him by making the boy choke on his own blood by slitting the Gryffindor's throat with the blade of his jewel bedecked dagger, Harry had been able to reach his small amount of strength to send the blade back into the body of the owner.

            Severus Snape, then a spy, had only just been able to reach the young savior and take back to Hogwarts with the help of surprising a Death Eater in training waiting for his seventeenth birthday, Draco Malfoy. It had taken the better part of two months to be able to heal his body scars but the scars of his soul remained. 

            No one that was still living or had their souls still intact knew what all Harry had had to endure during his imprisonment. Harry rarely talked about anything after his ordeal (as the others called it) and everyone knew that the subject of his imprisonment was utter taboo and result with the former golden boy retreating further into himself.

            To Harry it seemed that everyone had taken for granted the peace that they were now living in. He just couldn't get himself to laugh and enjoy life as he used to—as everyone was now doing.

           He had seen and heard so much death during his captivity and the war that he almost had reached that point in his life, that he could no longer consider himself one with the light of day anymore. The day was too bright; the smiles of all the happy faces were too bright, and the light of the sun was just too bright. 

            The faux cheerful expressions of those he once considered the closest of friends were what made him decide that he didn't belong at all except to the night.

            Girls and boys both tried to surround all day to praise him and try to get his attention in any way. But Harry ignored this. He didn't want hero worshippers; he wanted someone that needed and loved him because of who he was and could accept the fact that Harry had many ghosts in his past and skeletons in his closest/wardrobe. But no one seemed to notice this at all.

            Instead, people wanted to know who his new girlfriend was, or when he would get one. When Harry would answer that he wasn't interested in any girls the boys would ask if Harry was homosexual and would like to go out with them instead. But the Gryffindor would always just politely answer, in a practiced tone and voice, that he was not interested in either gender. That instead if and when the time came to pass he would fall in love and it wouldn't matter what sex his partner was. And so Harry lived his life, just a shell of his former self with no more laughter and dazzling, knee-weakening smiles that every magazine seemed to want for a center-fold.

            There were no more serious fights between houses that included him anymore. Everyone had lost or known someone from the war. House animosities seemed so petty and insignificant now to him but some of the more diehard people of the houses still kept their rivalries and hatreds. Draco Malfoy, one that had helped save Harry, rarely if at all talk to the Gryffindors. And Harry hardly ever talked to anybody at all.

            While his friends and just about everyone else lived happily after the year of war had ended despite their losses, Harry was one of the few that didn't. Every night after going to bed he would sleep peacefully for an hour or so before reliving some horrific experience. And although, Ron and Hermione and the rest of the Gryffindors had been very supportive, they did not understand in the slightest what he had had to experience and live through, however hard they tried, which wasn't much at all.

            So this night, like every other night, after Harry woke up from his nightmares he donned his invisibility cloak and went for a stroll. But that night, unlike other nights, he decided to do so outside.

*

            Draco Malfoy had lost both of his parents due to the war. His mother killed by his father for not being evil enough; and his father being killed by an Auror for being too evil. This seemed to be an ironic poetic justice to the Slytherin who had not planned to ever join the Dark Lord and now thanks to Harry Potter knew he would never have to worry about it.

            But still, every night he did have reoccurring flashbacks to the time of his life under the rule of his tyrannical father and the night of his beloved mother's murder five weeks before the fall of Voldemort.

            He was one of only three seventh year Slytherins remaining at Hogwarts. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle had been killed in the war. And Pansy Parkinson had committed suicide the day when the dark fortress of the Death Eaters had been burned down like Atlanta when Sherman had gone marching through.

            Only he, Blaise Zabini, and Millicent Bulstrode remained. Blaise's parents had had no connections to Voldemort, being that his parents were both foreigners that had moved to England after the first fall of Voldemort from Italy that worked around the world doing broom designs. Millicent had only been able to escape because she had been staying with a cousin in the United States throughout the summer when she was to have been initiated as a Death Eater on her seventeenth birthday as was tradition for all the Death Eaters. She and her cousin were not able to be contacted due to some discrepancy in the owl and how all international owls went through a monitoring system that came after the first year of the war.

            Draco dressed in his robes and grabbed a dark cloak and stepped out of the Slytherin Common Room and headed outside. He planned to go on a promenade around the lake.

            The young Slytherin, of course, did not know that his former rival from his younger years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was also headed in that direction only about a hundred yards away, not being able the figure ahead of him wearing his dark cloak and blending into the shadows of trees, shrubs, and bushes.

            Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter were walking not a hundred yards from each other and towards the relatively same direction; both lost in their own thoughts and remembrances.

*

            Both the Slytherin and the Gryffindor remained oblivious to the creature watching them from another shadow, white fangs showing from inside the creature's mouth. It was waiting for one of the two humans to come closer, ready to change one of their lives forever.

            But even with that one life changed, none realized that so would the other.

**TBC**

**A/N: Please review and tell me what you think!**

**         Poem—"A Question" by Robert Frost**


	2. The Bite

**Stars in the Moonlit Sky**

_Midway upon the journey of our life_

_I found myself within a forest dark,_

_For the straightforward pathway had been lost._

**Excerpt from Danae Lukine's Vampiric Mysteries: (AN: this is a fake book on my part)   **

            **As the human daughter of two vampires, I, the author of this book, Vampiric Mysteries, declare that all information found within is true as according to my parents. However, certain details have been extracted from the tales so as to not give away the secrets of the vampires.**

            **Vampires are rumored to not be able to walk in sunlight, drink blood from numerous sources thus killing them upon finishing their feed, and be killed by a wooden stake through their heart, holy water, and other such things. But in reality, vampires can walk under the noonday sun and can only die by such things as beheading at the hands of an innocent or of its loss of will to live. All vampires need only three to four hours of sleep and rest per day though. Although vampires do need to drink blood from an outside source, preferably human, they do not kill the ones they drink from. They are known to those who have been with them to always leave their victims with just enough blood to survive. But vampires only need to drink blood once every new moon.**

**            Very rarely, however, does the vampire decide to turn the one of whom they drink. To become a vampire, one must have immense strength, will, and power. The ritual of turning is when a vampire drinks all the blood of a human and then willingly gives its own blood (collected from others) in return. The one being turned must be of considerable power and stamina to be able to survive the turning. A vampire usually sires only a single other in their life to become an heir. For when a vampire is turned, they receive all the knowledge of the one who turns them.**

**            Some vampires are known to have extraordinary strength, speed, perception, telekinesis, invisibility and minor telepathic powers. The strength of the powers depends on the strength of the vampire that was turned and the one who has turned them.**

**            Vampires are not habitually overly social people. They usually live by themselves or with a small group of usually around three. Although vampires do not often travel in large groups they do still have a 'family' which is usually called a clan (which is made of usually around ten to twenty vampires) with whom all official meetings and discussions take place. Clan members are known to interchange between different the clans because each of the clans are known for different things. For example, there may be a clan renown for its scholars and another for its warriors. Since vampires are immortal they tend to study a subject before moving onto another once they have lost interest or gained all knowledge available.  There is a ruling clan of vampires, the Vyendell clan.  This clan always has nine counselors and a leader of all the vampires, the Lord or Lady who are all elected by the vampires.**

**            Vampires are immortal creatures but they are also monogamous. Though they may be with as many people as they wish, upon bonding with their mate they will stay with that person for life and can never be with another ever again. A vampire rarely maintains their sanity if their mate should die. They usually live only long enough to avenge their death (should it have occurred as a homicide) before losing their will to live. However, it is at an uncommon rate for a vampire to have found their mate.**

**            But since the creatures are known to find their mate among the mortal humans of the Earth the mortals are granted limited immortality. Once the mortal exceeds their lifespan, should their mate die, they will as well. The extended life lasts only as long as their vampire mate lives. A vampire's mate also becomes somewhat of a blood donor (or consort, as the proper term goes). **

**            Upon finding and bonding with their mate, a vampire may only take blood from that one source known as the blood consort. A vampire's mate and blood consort has another ability that is placed in them at their bonding. As a vampire will only drink from them after that ceremony, they have the ability to have their blood supply replenish itself after having their mate feed off of them or after any type of blood loss. Vampire mates cannot be turned. Mates have the benefits of the quick healing and having the limited ways of being killed as vampires do.  (They are also gifted with whatever vampiric talent that their mate possesses to a certain degree.)**

**            A vampire knows no sexual orientation. They chose their mates by the compatibility between the two and the pull between them. The two mates cannot fight the pull putting them together for long before they give in to the bond mutually. The bonding ritual is what binds the vampire to their human mate for the rest of their lives. The ritual in itself includes having sexual intercourse and the sharing of blood (mainly through simultaneous bites) during the intercourse; effectively making this different than the actual siring of a new vampire. However, there is less than a ten percent chance of a vampire being able to find their true mate.**

**            It has been proven that vampires may have children, though they rarely do, more than likely due to the fact that all vampire children are born human and are immune to the bite and ritual that would turn any other human. Thus leaving the children to live their lives and die while their parents live on.**

**             Possibly the most famous of vampires to outside knowledge is Dracula. However, Dracula, in the view of the vampires, is not as important as the vampire Lord Ezekiel and his mate, Zachariah. Ezekiel had been the Lord of the Vampires and loved by all of his fellows when he had found his mate, the mortal wizard Zachariah. The circumstances that surrounded the meeting of Lord Ezekiel and Zachariah are widely disputed by the vampires of today. All that is known for certain is that the two tried to deny their bond before finally giving in and consummating it. Their love of each other was like that of what Muggles call 'fairy tales' or highly romantic but utterly clichéd love stories. Their story, however, ends in tragedy. Lord Ezekiel had been called away from his mate for unknown reasons promising to return. However, the lord was never able to fulfill his promise as he and his entourage were captured and killed by a group of vampire-hunting wizards, who called themselves the Eradicators who have now become the Slayers.**

**            Due to past and recent vampire slayings, very few vampires still live today, which is a tragedy being that they are such a fascinating race. A vampire may have been among humans for a century and still no one would learn of their secret. The only way to noticeably discern a vampire from a human being is their fangs which only show themselves when they are about to drink from their source and the somewhat glowing of their eyes at the same time. It is said that there are less than two-hundred of these captivating creatures left in the world with only about twenty having found mates. The wizarding world seldom hears word from the few remaining vampires; even though there is no doubt that there are some still living amongst us.**

****

            Draco had just reached his favorite secluded spot by the Hogwarts lake when he felt rather than saw a creature running past him at an impossible speed. Pulling out his wand by instinct, fighting down his fear of any Death Eaters that had eluded capture, and stealthily running he was surprised to see two silhouetted figures struggling against each other, muffled yells coming from the smaller of the two figures. But before Draco could get any closer an invisible barrier kept him from moving forward, even after he tried blasting it away with a hurriedly stated spell. He could no longer hear anything coming from behind the barrier being that it was soundproof.

            It only took a second for Draco to come to a new decision. He turned to go running to the school to get help, but as he turned around and had only ran about three feet he was knocked backwards by the force field. It surrounded him on all sides. The blond Slytherin watched helplessly and gasped as he saw a gleam of long, white fangs appear in the mouth of the more aggressive of the two that he was watching. Draco tried yet again to break into the barrier. Before he could do anything else, darkness came over him.

            His last vision was that of the victim of the vampire falling backwards towards the ground.

*

            Harry had just about reached the point by the lake when he was grabbed around the waist by seemingly invisible and strong hands. They pulled off his invisibility cloak and tossed it onto the ground. The Gryffindor immediately started struggling in earnest as the creature held him, becoming visible and white pointed canine teeth showing. The creature had dark brown hair that was tied back by a leather string and was wearing seemingly a set of what looked like battle robes (think elves from Lord of the Rings). Glowing amber eyes were gleaming down at him.

            "Do not worry, Harry Potter." The creature whispered. "I do not wish to harm you badly, or at all. You are to be my childe and apprentice and learn what all you can from me. A great sense of power I feel in you. One that I haven't felt since… You look like him, you know." Harry stopped struggling momentarily at those words, wondering what they meant for a split second.

            And at the first tinge of the bite on his neck, slumber came over the seventeen year old.

*

            When Draco came to he realized immediately that it was soon to be dawn from the myriad of colors coming from the east. As he sat up and shook his head he saw another figure lying on the ground next to him, only a foot away, and the memory of the previous night suddenly came flooding back into his mind. The vampire, the victim, the barrier, and then nothingness.

            The Slytherin sat up and pulled the person next to him over and gasped when he recognized who it was. Harry Potter.

            A small moan came from the teenager at Draco's side and bleary green eyes blinked as they looked up into seemingly a silver-blue sky. The Gryffindor blinked again before realizing that it wasn't the sky that was silver but eyes that were staring down at him. Green eyes closed once more and opened looking up those familiar eyes. He had seen them before, he was certain. And suddenly Harry was brought back to memories of pain. Memories of pain at the hands of Voldemort and the rescue that saved his life.

            _All he could hear were screams. All he could see was blood. Blood pouring down his face; pooling around his feet; covering his hands. And then it suddenly became hard to breathe. He was falling. Falling into a well of darkness that he couldn't escape._

_            "Severus! Severus! I've found him!" Then suddenly a warm hand was touching him not in pain but with kindness. "I don't think he's breathing!"_

_            He finally managed the strength to open his eyes and see two pairs looking back at him. One was a dark onyx color. And the other was so rare that it became imprinted into his mind. It was a beautiful mosaic of silver and blue._

            "Malfoy?" Harry asked as he tried to sit up only to cry out at the pain coming from his neck and head. The Slytherin pushed Harry back down into the grass in a surprisingly gentle manner. 

            "I don't think you should be trying to get up any time soon." Draco whispered softly. "Do you remember anything that happened to you?"

            Flashes went through Harry's mind at that comment. It was as if seeing centuries pass by in front of his eyes. It felt as if images, emotions, history, wisdom, and knowledge were all being shoved in his mind. The Gryffindor screamed at the pain that went through his head at the passing of his sire's knowledge into his mind. Harry gripped his head in an effort to try to get rid of the images and emotions flooding and flashing before his closed eyes and whole body. Muggles burning villages searching for witchcraft. Anger as news returned of wizards hunting for vampires and killing them brutally. Pride as he watched a young man with emerald green eyes smiling as he was being trained just after being turned. Pain and horror at the sight of the charred and ash covered skeletons and the scream of pure grief from the one beside him. Thoughts of vengeance and retribution.

           "Potter? Pott—Harry?" Draco started calling trying to pull the Gryffindor away from whatever he was seeing. "Harry, come on. We have to get inside soon."

            Green eyes blinked rapidly before settling upon the person above him. "Malfoy? Draco? What's going on? Why? What are we doing outside?"

            "Do you remember anything from last night?"

            "I remember having a nightmare and deciding to go to the lake but everything else is a blur."

            Draco leaned down to place a hand behind Harry's head to help support him as he stood up. "Let's go inside first. I'll explain everything as soon as we reach my head boy dorms."

            And the sun rose that morning dawn to beckon a new day and the beginnings of a new life away from the path that had been set by the ideals of others and to the one that was theirs from even before their birth.

**Excerpt from—Inferno by Dante Alighieri**


	3. The Awakening

**Stars in the Moonlit Sky**

_Fate slew him, but he did not drop;_

_  She felled—but he did not fall—_

_Impaled him on her fiercest stakes—_

_He neutralized them all._

_She stung him, sapped his firm advance,_

_  But when her worst was done,_

_And he, unmoved, regarded her,_

_  Acknowledged him a man._

            Draco carried a limp Harry with his invisibility cloak draped over his arms as he headed towards the school. The Gryffindor had passed out as soon as he had tried to stand up in order to walk and Draco had found the cloak on the ground.

            Before the Slytherin head boy could get far, a figure seemed to suddenly materialize in front of him in the shadows of a weeping willow that was near the lake shore. Draco had his wand pointed at the figure in an instant but two pale hands were raised in a showing of wanting to do no harm. The person then stepped out of the shadows of the tree and came forward and Draco instantly recognized the vampire from the night before with his brown hair tied back and his light brown eyes gazing at him.

            "Do not worry," the creature said softly. "I am not here to hurt him, only to help. He will need much of it in the coming week or so as he processes the information that has come to him through the turning ritual. I believe that you do know the truth about vampires from all books that you do read, do you not?"

            The blonde was shocked. "How do you know about my interest in vampires? You haven't been spying on me, have you?"

            "I have seen you reading by this very tree before. About a century ago, I had nothing to really do so I decided to go back to Hogwarts again as a student for the third time, concealing my age. This tree was a favorite spot of mine, although it was quite a bit younger then." The vampire answered back calmly. "You always read books of vampires that I am thinking aren't in the Hogwarts School library. Although, I must warn you, if you think of becoming an Eradicator, or Slayer as the present term goes, I will kill you. If you harm the person in your arms, I will torture you very painfully before killing you."

            "I can assure you that I've never planned to kill vampires!" Draco stated indignantly. "I think that the entire race is fascinating and mysterious. It's the fact that no one knows much more than nothing about your race. I bet that almost all of the school does believe the whole idea about vampires being evil and unable to walk in sunlight."

            The vampire just gazed evenly at him. "Of course they do. Humans, Muggle or magic, I find, have always believed themselves to be the superior race and have done anything possible to make sure of that. If they should here of a superior race they either set out to destroy it or just ignore it. What gives a human that right? What gives you the right to capture a pure, innocent, and powerful unicorn and place it into a zoo? How can your people justify the killing of hundreds of vampires? We have not always been a solitary type of people. Vampires used to travel in large groups and larger clans but then wizards would come through killing every last one of them. And that Voldemort came to the vampires saying that if we joined him he would let us live unharmed—but to join was to become a slave! Remember this fact right now, a vampire, whether fed a potion or put under a spell, can only bow to those who deserve their respect or when they truly want to." 

            Draco nodded. "Will you be coming up to the school? Today is a Saturday so Pott—Harry and I aren't expected to be in classes today or tomorrow. I may know a bit about vampires but you really are needed. Isn't it a vampire tradition that the sire tells the heir about your race?"

            "I must go somewhere for now. But I will come by tonight at the head boy dormitory where you live." The vampire said looking at the head boy badge on Draco's robe. "Be there by eight o'clock and I will explain what I can in the hours I can stay. Just make sure that you tell no one about his turning. Vampirism is impossible to find when it isn't the new moon and we don't need to have his secret told to anyone or even remotely hinted at. Make extra care that his red headed supposed friend does not find out."

            "Weasley Weasel-Brain?" the Slytherin asked, distastefully. He and Ron had worked on the same side during the war but they had never even attempted to actually get along. "Harry and that idiot have been attached to each other at the hip since their first year. Why would he not be kept in the loop of things?"

            "The Weasley has let envy, greed, and his supreme jealousy to take over his life. He resents the one in your arms for his fame and power. He strives to become a Slayer to try and prove his worth to the world. I have read it in his mind."

            "Always knew Weasley would never know a good thing or person when handed to him on a damn _platinum platter." Draco whispered, looking down at Harry before turning to look at the vampire again. "What is your name?"_

            "I go under many names but you may call me Gabriel as it was my first. Now go." The vampire then turned and Draco stared as he saw that the vampire was now about a hundred yards away from him and was walking into the Forbidden Forest.

            Draco shifted Harry in his arms to a more comfortable position before walking quickly towards the school to get to his dorms before the early risers saw him outside with an unconscious Harry Potter in his arms.

*

            Harry groaned as he woke up from the slumber that he had fallen into after coming back to the world of consciousness. He shifted around and tried to snuggle up into the warm blankets before realizing that he didn't know where he was. He still had a minor headache he assessed quickly as he sat up to look around but it was as bad as before when all those visions went through his mind.

            Green eyes blinked blearily for a moment before focusing on the room he was in. Yet again, Harry had to thank his lucky stars that he had had his vision corrected by a mixture of Muggle laser surgery and magic after his fifth year. Harry gasped however as he looked around. He was in a bedroom decorated in green and gold colors with a golden framed mirror directly in front of him. The bed he was on had gold sheets and a green comforter. The floor was wood with a green rug on top of it and all the furniture, including a bedside table, wardrobe, desk, chair, and a small bookcase was made out of mahogany. A large window looked over the Hogwarts grounds, including the lake and quidditch pitch.

            It wasn't the room however that had shocked him. It was the color. He could see so vividly that every single color in the room seemed more vibrant than anything else he had ever seen. But it surprised him was that the sight of all these new colors didn't seem to make his head ache, in fact, it made it lessen a bit.

            Then Harry heard a soft voice from the other side of one of the two doors in the room. One of the doors was slightly opened and Harry saw that it led to a spacious bathroom; the other was the one that the soft singing voice was coming from. Harry quickly walked to that door and opened it quietly.

            He saw Draco Malfoy sitting on a comfortable looking dark leather loveseat, reading a book, and singing to himself. 

_"A thousand years, a thousand more,   
A thousand times a million doors to eternity   
I may have lived a thousand lives, a thousand times  
An endless turning stairway climbs   
To a tower of souls   
If it takes another thousand years, a thousand wars,   
The towers rise to numberless floors in space  
I could shed another million tears, a million breaths,  
A million names but only one truth to face."_

            "It's a very beautiful song." Harry whispered softly as he walked quietly towards Draco and sat down next to him on the small sofa. 

            Draco turned quickly and sharply before relaxing when he saw Harry. "Oh, it's you," he said before he smiled slightly. "I was worried that you wouldn't wake up at all. It's almost five o'clock in the afternoon, you realize."

            "What?" Harry nearly shouted, jumping. "Everyone's going to be so worried. I mean, they do notice when I'm gone most of the time…"

            "Don't worry about them." Draco said softly. "We have to talk about what happened this morning. Harry, I know that you and I have had a rather—bad past together in our first years here. But please, remember as I tell you what I have to that I am telling the truth and that I am willing to put all of our bad blood into the past."

            Harry just raised an eyebrow. "Did you cast a spell on me that made me have visions of things that have happened to vampires in the last eight hundred years or so? Because I can tell you that it has been giving me a migraine. As well as the knowledge of thousands of different spells that I have never heard of before in my lifetime."

            Draco looked slightly nervous, an emotion that Harry rarely ever saw on the Slytherin's face. "No, I didn't cast a _spell_ on you, no one has."

            "Then how can I see and hear things like I've had a magnifier placed on my senses?" Harry asked, looking thoroughly confused.     "I mean, I can see from here that you have these sapphire blue streaks around the pupils of your eyes."

            The Slytherin looked around for a while before sitting back on his half of the seat. "I guess it starts last night when we both had nightmares. Or at least, I had these nightmarish flashbacks and decided to go on a walk to my favorite spot by the lake. At that time I didn't know that you were out there as well."

            "I remember having a nightmare and deciding to go on a walk. I don't really know what possessed me to go outside though. I do remember being grabbed by someone much stronger than me even though I was wearing my invisibility cloak." Harry suddenly remembered that he didn't know where the cloak was. "Did you happen to find the cloak out there?"

            Draco nodded over to a chair at a study table on the other side of the room that had shelves upon shelves of books. "Your infamous cloak is at the table." He then noticed Harry gaping at the sheer number of books. "Oh, they aren't all mine. They've been collected through the years by former head boys."

            "I was about to say!" Harry said. "If those were all yours then you would have even more than Hermione, which in itself is something."

            Draco nodded, "We've gotten a bit off subject though. Do you much about vampires?"

            "Vampires?" Harry asked. "What do they have to do with anything?"

            "Quite a lot." Draco said. "But do you know much about them besides all the crap about garlic, wooden stakes, holy water, and sunlight?"

            "I don't really know that much about them. Everyone always talks about them like their whole goal in life is to drink as much human blood as possible. I've never really believed it though. During the war, I saw no vampires on Voldemort's side although everyone said that they would be going to join him instantly. I have never heard about victims with bite marks dying from any type of news. I personally don't really believe all the crap about them being all evil. I mean, werewolves are looked down upon as well and they aren't all that bad."

            "It's good to hear that opinion coming from someone besides myself," Draco said. "I've always had this fascination of vampires since I was a really little child. I thought that the idea of them having to drink someone else's life force to live was amazing. So since I was about seven, I've read everything I could about them. Vampires are extremely sophisticated creatures and much more smarter than humans and the credit that we give them."

            Harry nodded to show his understanding and agreement. "They are fascinating in their own way I guess, if the visions in my head are true, but what does any of this have to do with me?"

            Draco looked rather nervous. "Do you still trust your friends in everything that you do?"

            "Why does that matter to the situation?"

            "Trust me, Harry, it matters a whole damn lot to the whole situation and to the rest of your existence."

            Harry looked quizzically at Draco. "I still don't understand how this affects the situation that you are obviously reluctant to discuss." Draco just arched an eyebrow. "Well, if you must know. I'm not exactly qualified to be best friends, or even close friends, with Ron and Hermione anymore."

           "I've seen and been through too much that they don't even want to try to comprehend. I'm too dark for them, rather. They, and most of the rest of the school, want to only see the good side of things and ignore the rest rather than accept it. And also, they still can't seem to accept that some Slytherins are good… Even though they know that Severus and—you saved me."

            "That's true. I was really frightened when I found you… I thought that you weren't breathing."

            "I technically wasn't, not for awhile anyway. But what—"

            Draco interrupted him. "You were bitten by a vampire."

            Harry started sputtering and coughing before laughing. "I swear if I had been eating or drinking something I would have choked on it."

            "I wasn't joking, Harry."

**Poem—Part One: Life, CXIV (114) ****by Emily Dickinson**

**Song—A Thousand Years by Sting**


	4. The Painting

**IMPORTANT STORY INFO: Okay, well, I was reading a Pirates of the Caribbean reincarnation story about Jack and Will and I was hit with a plot bunny (a rather mean one that just kept biting me). I thought the idea of reincarnating to fulfill promises was interesting and since I don't want to start a new story I have decided to adapt this story to fit into the evil plot bunny's demands. So you ****should reread the rest of the story. But if you don't want to reread all of it then you ****MUST at least** REREAD CHAPTER TWO! ****

The PotC Fic: Dead End Angels by Mamusi 

**Stars in the Moonlit Sky**

_Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,   
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;  
Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,  
Lull'd by the moonlight have all pass'd away!_

            "You're not joking?" Harry said, a confused look coming over his face. "What the hell do you mean by you're not joking? Are you saying that I'm a vampire now?"

            "Yes."

            Harry gaped at Draco's calmness of voice. "Explain, please," he said as he sat back in the divan.

            Draco opened his mouth to start speaking before closing it again and pausing. Finally, he spoke, "I'm only allowed to tell you the general facts about vampires. Gabriel, that what the vampire who bit you said his name was, will have to explain all the details of the matter. It is a tradition among vampires for the sire to tell of the vampiric ways to the newly turned."

            "This is the dumbest joke that you have played on me, Draco Malfoy." A fierce look came over his face. He of course did not see how his green eyes started glowing with an edge of silver seeming to come out of them but Draco did, mesmerized.

            "It would be except for the fact that it isn't a joke." A voice said from the door leading out of the head boy rooms. "I have come a bit earlier than expected because my business was cut short."

            Harry stood and turned around so quickly that Draco winced at the thought of the whiplash (which never came, as vampires do not seem to get whiplash ;). The newly turned vampire watched as his sire came out of the shadows as seamlessly as if melting from the shadows himself. 

            "I suggest that you sit down now, childe."

            Harry immediately did just that but not before he asked a question. "Who are you?"

            "I have gone by many names in the centuries that I have lived. My first name, the one that I was given at my naming ceremony as a child, is Gabriel."

            "I didn't mean just your name." Harry replied. "I want to know about who you are. A name doesn't determine your character. If I'm to be your childe I'd rather know what you are like."

            "I was born in the year 976 AD. My mother was an elf-witch. Her family had descended from the mixed blood of one of the highest lineages of the woodland elves and a powerful pureblooded wizarding family. My parents match was not at all in any shape or form a love match. They were betrothed before they had even heard of each other's names. However, my parents did respect each other and their matrimonial bonds. My father was a busy man during my early years and because of this I spent much time with my mother and her kin. There was, however, a man in the woodland realm of the elves. He had been there to visit and learn of the different types of magicks available there. Since my mother was also busy during this time with her people, I was taken care of by this man. Throughout this time of my life, I rarely, if ever, saw my father. But when my mother passed on into afterlife when I was only seven years of age the man (of whom I will withhold his name for now) took me to where he was told my father was to be.

            "They became quick friends and I was apprenticed under both of them. They planned to build a wizarding university with two of their friends for all young magicians to be trained because during these hard times many were being burned at the stake and unable to protect themselves. Can you guess how I am speaking of?"

            "The Hogwarts Founders!" Draco breathed out. 

            "My father was Godric Gryffindor and my childhood caretaker was Salazar Slytherin." Gabriel stated before he continued on with his tale. "My father and Salazar frequently had arguments about the bringing of what you now called Muggleborns to Hogwarts. My father believed that we should invite them to come so that they wouldn't live in ignorance of their abilities but Salazar always opposed—however, he did have a good reason. Witch burnings were common during this time and Salazar had already lost three of those close to him due to Muggles. He believed that one of the Muggleborns would betray Hogwarts to those that wished them all dead. Even though, they did argue a lot the two did remain friends (of some sort or fashion) until the end even after Salazar decided to leave the school.

            "When I was twenty-three the unthinkable happened. While I had been out in the Noctem Forest, which is now known as the Forbidden (or Dark) Forest, I was bitten. It was because of this that I was never able to return to Hogwarts or to my wife and son, who was but a little child at that time. Vampires were being hunted during this time, I was afraid to return. I knew that my wife came from a family of vampire hunters and that she held no love for me. I only returned once to Hogwarts and that was to say goodbye to my father and Salazar. They were the only two who knew the truth of the matter; everyone else had been led to believe that I had died and my body never found."

            Gabriel then seemed to focus solely on Harry. "You are not the first—." He trailed off as his eyes widened as if he had just realized what Harry looked like. "Dear Merlin," he whispered as he walked closer to the emerald eyed teenager and circled him. "I knew that you looked at least a little similar to him. But you look _exactly like him. I'd swear that you were a younger him if I hadn't seen his corpse with my own eyes." A slightly hysteric look came into the vampire's eyes. _

            Harry and Draco looked at each quickly and Draco arched his eyebrow and looked pointedly at the vampire and rolled his eyes as if saying, 'This is your sire? Pity for you. That's what you get from a Gryffindor.' However, the blonde decided to just ask "What on earth are you talking about?" instead. 

            The elder vampire started circling him as well. "You! You look like him too! But this morning you didn't! What did you do?" 

            "I, uh, changed clothes and pulled back my hair?" Draco said.

            "We can't both look like _him because we don't look at all alike, Gabriel." Harry said._

            "I'm not talking about the same person!" 

            "Then whom do we look like?" Harry asked.

            "It's just uncanny." Gabriel said. "But it's impossible. They didn't have any children and you two can't be siblings. I saw your body! I know did, Ezekiel. And Zachariah died only a week later. This can't be possible. Unless…"

            "What are you raving about?" Draco asked.          

            "Have either of you seen a portrait of Ezekiel or Zachariah?"

            "Who and who?" Harry asked. "Aren't those biblical names? Don't they mean strength and remembrance in God or something of the sort? What do they have to do with us?" 

            "Ezekiel and Zachariah! They are supposedly the most powerful vampire and mate relationship to have ever occurred in the last millennia or so."

            "I read about them once in a couple of my vampire texts. But I've never seen a picture of them anywhere. Didn't they die in the early 1700s? None of the texts would specify how they died. Even Vampiric Mysteries didn't tell and that book goes into great depth of detail."

            "Of course they don't," Gabriel said stiffly, calming considerably. "It is forbidden to tell those outside of the vampiric society of the events that occurred that led to their deaths. And even in our society their tragedy is rarely spoken of. But I know for a fact that several portraits were made of them and those several were copied which means there should be a portrait here at Hogwarts because this place has almost all of the more important paintings from history—or at least a copy—and quite a few not-so-important ones. Unfortunately, it has been about a century since a have last been to Hogwarts. I was a Ravenclaw, did you know? I only have to become a Hufflepuff now when I come back to school for the fourth time, if I ever decide to. I was a Gryffindor my first time at Hogwarts, of being the son of Godric, then I was a Slytherin in 1496 when I came to Hogwarts again."

            Harry blinked his eyes at the rambling vampire. "Where was the painting the last time you were here? I don't think that the teachers would move paintings because the paintings can pretty much move themselves so the painting might be in the same spot or general area."

            "It was in one of the secret rooms of the East Tower, I know it. Follow quickly." Gabriel then rushed from the room and faded into the shadows. Luckily, Harry could see him somewhat dimly with his newly improved sight and ran after him with Draco close at his heels.

            Gabriel led them down some staircases and then up others and what seemed to be circles until he finally reached a hidden, dark hallway in the East Tower. "The painting should be at the very end of the hall." He then waved a hand towards a long forgotten torch on the wall and it went up in flames followed by the other torches. 

            Harry gasped and stopped short making Draco crash into him. "Oh my God," he whispered.

            There was a painting on the wall in front of him. He was staring into a mirror image of himself—minus the scar—with different clothes and a more mature face. And there next to him seemed to be Draco leaning in so that their foreheads almost touched yet they couldn't move that extra three inches to touch be able to touch each other.

            _It smelled musty and confined in the room; and of the painting oils of the leering painter watching him. Yet he was happy here because of one reason. One currently whining reason._

_             "Zeke! You're the Vampire Lord! Get a little bit more self-control and sit still so we can finish in here. You do want to finish, don't you?"_

_            "I do not know, my love, I rather like being here next to you. Do you not enjoy my company?"_

_            "Of course I enjoy it, dear, but I don't like the painters. Just think when the portrait is done we can hang it up in the castle."_

_            "But then everyone would see our portrait selves kissing all day, wouldn't they?"_

_            A bright laugh echoed throughout the room. "I would hope that they would have a bit more control." Blonde hair tickled his neck as kisses were gently placed on him, warding the painter off._

            Harry shook his head at the sensations that just ran through his body and especially his neck before turning to look to Gabriel. "The portrait isn't moving," he said softly. "Why's that?"

            "It is said that when they died with their promise unfulfilled that they were doomed to be forever ever apart until the time came where they could complete their promise. They stopped moving the day Ezekiel was killed, or so the legend goes."

            "What promise?" Harry asked.

            "Ezekiel swore to Zachariah that he would return from his journey and then forever more remain at his side. He broke the promise with his death. It is said that mates who die separated with an broken promise of importance between are doomed to be separated even in the afterlife until it is completed, as I said before."

            "Then how on earth could they complete the promise if they were doomed to be apart?"

            "That knowledge has been forgotten so it is a fair chance that it never will be. Finding mates are so rare these days, what with most vampires hiding from wizards so we don't have much practical knowledge about them. Our greater scholars who knew the secrets of the vampires are dead."

            Draco commented. "Well, that's stupid. Why didn't you write down your records? It would have saved you much trouble."

            "And risk someone with malicious motives finding all the secrets of the vampires? I think not." Gabriel turned and started walking down the hall. "Do come quickly, I have many explanations to give to Harry once we reach the room."

*

            "How did they die?" Draco asked Gabriel as the three sat down in the small living room in his dorm.

            "It is forbidden for me to tell you. Even the vampires do not like to talk of it. I am one of the few who still survives and knows the entirety of the story. So, as it is, I cannot tell you."

            "Why?" Draco asked indignantly.

            "You are not a vampire."

            "So I have to be a vampire to be told? That's stupid! I wouldn't hurt Harry and I swear I won't!"

            "Unless you are a vampire or a vampire's mate then I am not allowed to tell you anything that pertains to Ezekiel and Zachariah's story in detail. I can assure you that the likeliness of you finding a vampire for a mate is very, very low."

            "How do you know so much about what happened?" Harry asked quietly before Draco could ask anything else.

            "You are not the first that I have turned. Ezekiel had been my childe, a term that is used of a vampire while he is still in training, until his rite of passage when he became my apprentice. I had always specialized in swordsmanship. He was an excellent student. Then he died."

            Harry nodded then tilted his head to the side and asked, "If he was so good at swordsmanship then how was he captured?" 

            "I am not allowed to tell while the human remains in the room."

            Draco sat up huffily. "Well, _excuse_ me for not being the one you chose to bite! But might I remind you that this is _my room that I have so __kindly let you use?"_

            "The only way that I'll be able to tell you what happened while staying within the vampire code would be for you to either be bitten—which I can assure you won't happen within the next hour—or for you to be either Harry's or my mate, which is even more unlikely."

            "How do you know if someone is your mate?" Harry questioned.

            "I wouldn't know as I have not found my mate. Ezekiel, however, described it as a pull that he felt when first looked into Zachariah's eyes deeply." Harry's facial expressions showed his confusion. "Basically, he looked into Zachariah's eyes for at least ten seconds then started feeling a sexual pull (in other words, sexual desire) towards him which was strange being at the time he believed that he hated, or at least extremely disliked, Zachariah." 

            Draco sighed. "Being that I feel absolutely no sexual _pull_ towards either of you I guess I shall be leaving to go to dinner. Harry, I'd come up with a good excuse of your absence. Weasley," he paused as if to think, "and almost all of your house," he paused again, "and, well, over half the school have been a bit temperamental lately."

            Harry stood up and walked towards Draco. "Thanks for everything you've done for me today, Draco," he said smiling into his silver eyes.

            Draco nodded. "Fat lot of help it did me. I don't even get to hear the good stuff."

            Emerald eyes twinkled in an irritating manner as Harry tried to keep in his laughter. Draco breath caught and Harry's eyes widened. There seemed to be a feeling deep within their chests around their hearts that made them close the distance between them but just before their lips could meet, they both jumped back.

            "Bloody hell." They both said loudly as they put a hand on their rapidly beating hearts.

            Gabriel put his finger to his chin in a gesture of thought. "Well, isn't that interesting. I guess you won't be needing to leave now, Draco Malfoy."       

**Poem Excerpt—"Beautiful Dreamer" by Stephen Foster **


	5. The Author's Question

**_IMPORTANT!_ **

(To me anyway)

I know that we aren't supposed to use author's notes as a whole chapter but I need all of y'all's opinions on a problem in this story and I wanted it fixed before I typed out the new chapter and posted it. It's not a major problem.

Simply put, **I don't like the names Ezekiel and Zachariah** in the **context** of this story. 

I've been searching the baby name network site (which is really excellent, by the way) and some of the many books that I've read in search of better names and have come up with a few. But being me, which is a perfectionist to a point and an indecisive person on another point, I need opinions on if these names seem to fit their characters.

I know that y'all don't know much about either of their characters (which is what the new chapter is all about) so I've put a list to show what things are known about both.

**_Ezekiel_:           Vampire**

                        Lord of the Vampires circa late 1600s/early 1700s 

                        Loved by the vampires

                        Killed by Slayers

                        Childe/Apprentice/Close to Gabriel Gryffindor

                        Excellent Swordsman

                        Mate of Zachariah—a wizard    

                        Fought the bond with Zachariah before falling into a 'fairy-tale' romance

                        Swore to return to Zachariah but was killed before fulfilling the promise

New Facts:       Born late 1400s

                        Went to Hogwarts

                        Ravenclaw

**_Zachariah_:      Wizard**

                        Vampire Mate (note: vampire mates hold some of the powers of their mate)

                        Mate of Ezekiel

                        Dead (vampire mates rarely live after mate dies)

                        Fought the bond with Ezekiel before falling into a 'fairy-tale' romance 

                        Wanted Ezekiel to stay with him forever (assumed from fact that the trip that Ezekiel was killed on was supposed to be the last without Zachariah)

New Facts:       Born late 1400s

                        Went to Hogwarts

                        Slytherin

Okay, there are the facts that we know (and formerly didn't know) about the two star-crossed lovers. Now here are the new names that I found for them. The first one's mentioned are the ones that I'm leaning most towards—otherwise, known as my favorites. The meanings of the names are given next to the names. The meanings are just little extras given. They don't have to affect the name chosen. The origin of the name is given in parenthesis if known.

You can always just say that you want to keep Ezekiel and Zachariah for their names, if you want to.

**_Ezekiel_:**

                        Julian—youthful (English)

                        Aidan—fire, fiery one (Irish Gaelic)

                        Other name options that you can recommend

**_Zachariah_:**

                        Dante—steadfast, enduring (Italian)

                        Riordan—royal poet (Irish Gaelic)

                        Other name options you can send

**_Surnames_:**

                        Scarletti

                        Romanov

As you can see, name options are rather limited. However, I do **really ****like the name **Julian** (Scarletti or Romanov). So that name is more of a 'do you think this name will work' question. **

However, the Zachariah name change is much more open. I can't decide between Dante and Riordan or which surname would go better with it. If you know any other really cool (and more ancient, powerful sounding) surnames—please tell.

There you have it. 


End file.
